Method of integrating content on guest device with hospitality media system, and hospitality media system thereof

ABSTRACT

A hospitality media system includes a media system controller and a plurality of media devices located in a plurality of rooms and coupled to the media system controller. Each room has one or more in-room media devices located therein for performing a media function. A connection port allows a user of a room to establish data communications between the media system controller and a guest device. The media system controller is coupled to the connection port and configured to catalogue guest content available on the guest device to thereby form a guest content list, associate the guest content with one or more associated rooms at least including the user&#39;s room, and perform the media function utilizing content selected from the guest content list only on the in-room media devices located within the one or more associated rooms.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Canadian Patent Application No.2,707,202 filed Jun. 17, 2010 which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(1) Field of the Invention

The invention pertains generally to hospitality media and entertainmentsystems. More specifically, the invention relates to integrating contenton a guest device with a hospitality media system.

(2) Description of the Related Art

Guests often bring personal electronic devices with them when they stayat hotels, and these devices typically have stored therein movies,music, and other media content. One problem is there is no easy way toutilize the full capabilities of the hotel's media system to play themedia stored on the guest's device. One typical solution is to usevarious hardware adaptor cables to reroute the analog output of theguest's device to analog input ports of speakers or the hotel TV. Inthis way, some limited use of the hotel's media system can be achieved.However, rerouting analog signals does not allow full integration ofguest content with the hotel media system. For example, on-screeninteractive media functions, screensavers, special effects, remotecontrols, wake-up and other alarms, and time based functions areexamples of capabilities typically present on hotel media systems, butthese functions cannot be performed using media content stored on aguest's own device.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to an exemplary configuration of the invention there isprovided a method of integrating content with a hospitality media systemhaving a plurality of media devices in a plurality of rooms. Each roomhas one or more in-room media devices located therein for performing amedia function. A user of a room is allowed to establish datacommunications between the hospitality media system and a guest device.Guest content available on the guest device is catalogued to therebyform a guest content list. The guest content is associated with one ormore associated rooms at least including the user's room. The mediafunction is performed utilizing content selected from the guest contentlist only on the in-room media devices located within the one or moreassociated rooms.

According to another exemplary configuration of the invention there isprovided a hospitality media system including a media system controllerand a plurality of media devices located in a plurality of rooms andcoupled to the media system controller. Each room has one or morein-room media devices located therein for performing a media function. Aconnection port allows a user of a room to establish data communicationsbetween the media system controller and a guest device. The media systemcontroller is coupled to the connection port and configured to catalogueguest content available on the guest device to thereby form a guestcontent list, associate the guest content with one or more associatedrooms at least including the user's room, and perform the media functionutilizing content selected from the guest content list only on thein-room media devices located within the one or more associated rooms.

According to yet another exemplary configuration of the invention thereis provided a hospitality media system including a plurality of mediadevices located in a plurality of rooms, each room having one or morein-room media devices located therein for performing a media function. Ameans is included for allowing a user of a room to establish datacommunications between the hospitality media system and a guest device.A means is included for cataloguing guest content available on the guestdevice to thereby form a guest content list. A means is included forassociating the guest content with one or more associated rooms at leastincluding the user's room. A means is included for performing the mediafunction utilizing content selected from the guest content list only onthe in-room media devices located within the one or more associatedrooms.

These and other embodiments and advantages of the invention will becomeapparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example theprinciples of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be described in greater detail with reference to theaccompanying drawings which represent preferred embodiments thereof,wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a hotel media system integrating guestcontent stored on a plurality of guest devices including a mobile phone,a laptop computer, and a remote storage location according to anexemplary configuration of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of a hotel media systemillustrating how, according to one configuration, guest content fromguest devices in different rooms is only available in the particularroom for which each guest device is associated.

FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of a hotel media systemillustrating how guest content may be shared with different roomsaccording to another configuration of the invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a user interface that may be displayed on thetelevision in room C of FIG. 3 to allow the media system function ofplaying movies to be performed according to the hotel original contentlist and the guest content list.

FIG. 5 illustrates a user interface screen for configuring a hotel mediasystem to integrate content from a guest device according to anexemplary configuration of the invention.

FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 together illustrate an exemplary operational flowchartof operations performed by the hotel media system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary database structure for storing the guestcontent list and correlating each hotel room with one or more in-roommedia devices for use with the hotel media system of FIG. 3.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary database table for correlatingauthentication or identification information received from a guestdevice with a corresponding user's registered room.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a hotel media system 100 integrating guestcontent 142, 146, 152 stored on a plurality of guest devices including amobile phone 140, a laptop computer 144, and a remote storage location150 according to an exemplary configuration of the invention.

In this example, a hotel room 102 includes an in-room widescreenhospitality television (TV) 104 and set-top box (STB) 106 for playingboth original hotel content 120 and compatible guest content 142, 146,152 stored and made available by the guest devices 140, 144, 150. Amedia system controller 112 utilizes a wireless access port (AP) 108 anda wired Ethernet port 110 to perform data communications with the mobilephone 140 and laptop 144, respectively. Additionally, the media systemcontroller 112 is coupled to the remote storage location 150 via avirtual connection 123 across the Internet 130. A bandwidth controller122 sets an appropriate bandwidth for the virtual connection 123 tosupport playback requirements of the guest content 152.

The media system controller 112 accesses the guest devices 140, 144, 150through these connection ports 108, 110, 123 and catalogues guestcontent 142, 146, 152 to form a guest content list 116, which isautomatically associated with hotel room 102. A compatibility module 124checks each media asset of the guest content 142, 146, 152 to ensure itis compatible with the media system 100 and to convert the format ofincompatible guest content to a compatible format. To allow on-demandplayback from guest devices 140, 144, 150 and/or data connections 108,110, 123 that may not operate at speeds sufficient for real-timeplayback or may not be physically connected at the time playback isdesired, in this example, guest content 142, 146, 152 is cached within aguest content cache 126 until a guest staying in room 102 checks out ofthe hotel. Media functions of the hotel media system 100 are thereafterperformed on the in-room media devices 104, 106 in hotel room 102according to both an original hotel content list 114 and the guestcontent list 116. To preserve the privacy of the guest content 142, 146,152, in-room media devices of other hotel rooms that are not associatedwith the guest content list 116 do not have the option of using contentselected from the guest content list 116.

In an example of usage, when a movie playback function is selectedwithin hotel room 102, the STB 106 allows the guest in hotel room 102 toplay movies listed on either the guest content list 116 or the hotel'soriginal content list 114. A streamer 118 coupled to the guest contentcache 126 and the original hotel content 120 streams the selectedaudio/video (AV) content to the in-room television 104. All other mediasystem functions performed by the in-room media devices 104, 106 ofhotel room 102 including but not limited to video playback, audioplayback, screensavers, wake up calls, alarms, timers, messagingfunctions, remote control operations, special effects, on-screeninteractive functions, etc, may also utilize the guest content 142, 146,152 in a similar way. From the point of view of the guest staying inhotel room 102, the guest content 142, 146, 152 is fully integrated withthe hotel media system 100.

Although the mobile phone 140 and the laptop 144 are shown forconvenience of illustration in FIG. 1. as being within the hotel mediasystem 100, it should be noted they do not necessarily belong to thehotel media system 100 and may instead belong to a guest staying in thehotel room 102.

FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of a hotel media system 200illustrating how, according to one configuration of the invention, guestcontent 218, 228 from guest devices 216, 226 in different rooms is onlyavailable on in-room media devices 212, 222, 232 in the particular room210, 220 for which each guest device 216, 226 is associated. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 2, guest content A 218 is only available onthe television 212 in hotel room A 210, and guest content B 228 is onlyavailable on the television 222 in hotel room B 220. Since there is noguest device associated with room C 230, only content selected from theoriginal hotel content list 252 is available on the television 232 inhotel room C 230.

In this configuration, a room detector 240 automatically detects inwhich hotel room 210, 220, 230 a guest device is located in order toassociate the guest device and the guest content stored therein with aparticular room. The detection may be done in many ways according todifferent implementations. One implementation involves port detectionand mapping ports to known rooms. For example, as shown in FIG. 2 eachroom has its own AP 214, 224, 234 connected to a different port of theroom detector 240, and therefore by detecting from which AP 214, 224,234 the connection to the guest device 216, 226 is established, the roomdetector 240 can associate each guest device 216, 226 with a particularroom. Note that, in another example, the in-room AP 214, 224, 234 mayalso be integrated within an in-room STB (not shown). Similar mechanismsmay also be provided for wired switch and router connection ports suchas Ethernet, universal serial bus (USB), FireWire, etc.

In another embodiment, guest devices 216, 226 may be automaticallyassociated with a particular room 210, 220 by an authentication process.For example, a passkey may be displayed on the television 212 in room210, and a user of the mobile phone 216 enters the same passkey via auser interface of the guest device 216, 226 or the hotel media system200 to thereby confirm the user is in the room. A cookie may be storedon the mobile phone 216 or a unique identification (ID) such as thephone's global system for mobile communication (GSM) subscriberidentification module (SIM) number or media access controller (MAC)address may be stored within the room detector 240. In this way, theroom detector 240 is able to receive authentication or identificationinformation from the guest device 216, 226 and automatically associatethe mobile phone 216 with room 210, and associate the laptop computer226 with room 220 according to the received information. Similartechniques may be used to associate other guest devices with otherrooms.

The media system controller 250 catalogues media assets in guest contentA 218 available from the mobile phone 216 and forms guest content list254. Similarly, the media system controller 250 catalogues media assetsin guest content B 228 available from the laptop 226 and forms guestcontent list 256. Guest content list 254 is associated with hotel room A210, and guest content list 256 is associated with hotel room B 220.Thereafter, a guest in room A 210 may perform media functions such asplaying video content on the in-room television 212 according to anymedia asset listed on either the hotel original content list 252 orguest content list 254; and a guest in room B 220 may perform mediafunctions such as playing video content on in-room television 222according to any media asset listed on either the hotel original contentlist 252 or guest content list 256. To protect the privacy of theguests, in this configuration the media system controller 250 does notallow the guest in hotel room B to play any of the guest content A 218because it is not listed on the guest content list 256, and vice versa.Additionally, as there is no guest content list associated with room C230, neither guest content A 218 nor guest content B 226 is available inroom C 230.

FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of a hotel media system 300illustrating how guest content A 218 and guest content B 228 may beshared with different rooms according to another configuration of theinvention. FIG. 3 is very similar to FIG. 2 with elements similar to aspreviously described in FIG. 2 shown with the same numerical labels. Asshown in FIG. 3, both guest content A and B 218, 228 have now beenshared with hotel room C 230. Therefore, media system controller 250includes a guest content list 358 for room C 330 including both guestcontent A and guest content B.

In one configuration, guest content A 218 is automatically associatedwith hotel room A 210 as a result of the room detector 240 detectingthat a user in hotel room A 210 established data communications betweenthe media system controller 250 and the mobile phone 216. Likewise,guest content B 228 is automatically associated with hotel room B 220 asa result of the room detector 240 detecting that a user in hotel room B220 established data communications between the media system controller250 and the laptop 226. Additionally, because the user in hotel room A210 configured a sharing option to share guest content A 218 with hotelroom C 230, guest content A 218 is also associated with and included onthe guest content list 358 for hotel room C 230. Likewise, because theuser of hotel room B 220 configured a sharing option to share guestcontent B 228 with hotel room C 230, guest content B 228 is alsoassociated with and included on the guest content list 358 for hotelroom C 230. In this way, a guest in room C 230 may use the in-room TV232 to perform media functions such as playing video content accordingto any media asset listed on either the hotel original content list 252or guest content list 358, which includes both guest content A 218 andguest content B 228.

FIG. 4 illustrates a user interface (UI) 400 that may be displayed onthe television 232 in room C 230 of FIG. 3 to allow the media functionof playing movies to be performed according to both the hotel originalcontent list 252 and the guest content list 358. Three buttons,including one for original hotel (Hollywood) content 402, one for guestvideos from room A 404, and one for guest videos from room B 406, areavailable on the UI 400. Using a remote such as an in-room Infraredremote controller, a guest of room C 230 may select any of the buttons402, 404, 406 to choose a desired content group. Subsequent UI screensmay then list all the various media assets in the chosen content group.For example, if the guest selects the “Guest Videos (Room A)” button404, a subsequent screen may list all the content available from themobile phone 216.

The media system 300 allows a user of a room to establish datacommunications between the media system 300 and a guest device, and thenautomatically associates guest content on the guest device with theuser's registered room. By default, the hotel media system 300 may keepguest content private and only available in the user's registered roomfor which it is associated. However, as shown in FIG. 3, guest contentmay also be associated with other rooms in addition to the user's roomto thereby share the content.

In the simplified block diagrams of FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, there is no guestcontent caching or compatibility checking. For example, in order to playcontent listed on guest content list 254 (i.e., Guest content A 218),the mobile phone 216 must be presently connected and support speedssufficient to transfer media content data in real-time to enableplayback. The media assets in guest content A 218 must also becompatible with the hotel media systems 200, 300. In anotherconfiguration, in order to overcome these limitations, a more detailedimplementation supporting guest content caching and compatibilitychecking/conversion such as that shown in FIG. 1 may be utilized.Additionally, virtual connections across an external network such as theInternet 130 shown in FIG. 1 may be utilized to integrate content storedon remote guest devices 150 with the media systems 200, 300.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary UI screen 500 for allowing a user of ahotel room to initiate data communications between the hotel mediasystem 100 and a guest device, and to configure the hotel media system100 to integrate content from the guest device. A first parametersetting 502 allows the user to select a connection type. Variousconnection types may be supported by the media system including but notlimited to USB, FireWire, file transfer protocol (FTP), Windows shares,HTTP shares, proprietary online storage providers, etc. According to theconnection type selected, other parameters such as a location universalresource identify (URL) or internet protocol (IP) address location 504,user name 506, and password 508 may be configured in order to allow thehotel media system to automatically authenticate itself with the guestdevice. Sharing parameters 510 allow the content on the guest device tobe associated with only the user's own room (private), all rooms(public), or with an individually specified list of rooms. Since, in theexample shown in FIG. 5, the connection type is a virtual connection 123to a remote storage location 150, an option 512 is provided to upgradethe bandwidth available to connect to the Internet in order to supportthe transfer speeds necessary to transfer data from the remote locationin a reasonable amount of time. A final option 514 is provided to allowthe configuration of internal caching of the content until guest checkout. This may be useful to allow real-time playback without requiring aconstant connection to the guest device or high transfer speeds.However, due to privacy concerns, some guests may not wish to cachecontent within the hotel media system so the user is given the option514.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary database structure 800 for storing theguest content lists 254, 256, 358 and correlating each hotel room 210,220, 230 with one or more in-room media devices 212, 222, 232 in themedia system 300 of FIG. 3.

With reference to the guest content lists 254, 256, 358 of FIG. 3, inthis configuration, the three guest content lists 254, 256, 358 arestored within a single guest content list table 810. Guest content listtable 810 includes a first column 812 storing different sets of guestcontent and a second column 814 storing the one or more associated roomsfor each set of guest content. The associated rooms column 814 isdivided into sub-column 816 storing the user's room and sub-column 818storing any shared rooms. The user's room in sub-column 816 may beautomatically determined by the media system controller 250. The sharedrooms in sub-column 818 may be user-configured options specified usingthe sharing parameters 510 on UI screen 500 illustrate in FIG. 5.

In order to determine the user's room for storage in sub-column 816, theroom detector 240 may detect from which room a connection between thehospitality media system and the guest device 216, 226 is established.For example, a user of hotel room A may establish a connection betweenthe media system controller 250 and mobile phone 216 using access point(AP) 214 in hotel room A 210. Therefore, “Guest content A” in column 812is automatically associated with “Guest room A” in sub-column 816. Inanother example, the user in hotel room A 210 may establish a connectionbetween the media system controller 250 and mobile phone 216 using anon-screen UI screen 500 displayed by the media system controller 250 onthe TV 212 in the user's room. The room detector 240 may then detectfrom which room TV 212 is located using any number of methods such asrecognizing a MAC/IP address of TV 212 or performing port detection todetermine in that TV 212 is located in hotel room A.

In another configuration, a STB of hotel room A 210 (e.g., similar toSTB 106 shown in FIG. 1) may have a configuration setting stored thereinindicating the room in which the STB is located. The STB may pass thisinformation back to the media system controller 250. Similar methods mayalso be used to automatically associate “Guest content B” in column 812with “Guest room B” in sub-column 816. Combinations of these methods mayalso be performed to automatically determine the user's room. Forexample, UI screen 500 may be displayed on the guest device 216, 226when the guest device 216, 226 runs a hotel content integrationapplication and the user integrates user content on the guest device byrunning the hotel content integration application. The user may passback identification information to the media system controller 250 viathe content integration application.

A beneficial usage scenario involves automatically associating guestcontent with a user's registered room even when the user performs thecontent integration from outside the user's registered room and/or whenother automatic room detection methods are unavailable. In thesesituations, the media system controller 250 may receive authenticationor identification information from the guest device and thenautomatically associate the guest content stored on the guest devicewith the user's room determined according to the authentication oridentification information.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary room authentication table 900 forcorrelating authentication or identification information received from aguest device 216, 226 with a user's registered room. The media systemcontroller 250 may receive some identification information from eachguest device 216, 226 corresponding to either each guest device 216, 226itself or a user of the guest device 216, 226 and then look up in adatabase table to determine which hotel room 210, 220, 230 is currentlyassociated with the received identification information. In the exampleshown in FIG. 9, the received identification information involvespasskeys, where each passkey is stored on a separate row in column 902and has a corresponding user's registered room stored in column 904. Thepasskeys may be dynamically generated and updated as guests check in andout of the hotel and/or change their room assignments. For example, thepasskey for the hotel room A 210 may be changed with each reservation orguest occupancy so that guests who previously stayed in hotel room A 210will not be able to use the same passkey to integrate content for use bycurrent guests staying in hotel room A 210.

In this configuration, when a guest checks in to hotel room A 210 (or inanother situation deemed equivalent to guest check-in such as when aguest changes or upgrades to hotel room A 210), the room authenticationtable 900 may be populated with authentication data. For example,authentication data such as a passkey correlated to hotel room A may bedynamically generated and added to columns 902 and 904. The newlygenerated passkey may also be provided to the guest at the front deskupon check-in, or may be selectively displayed when needed on a displaydevice in hotel room A 210 such as the in-room TV 212.

After data communications have been established between the mobile phone216 and the media system controller 250, the media system control 250receives a passkey from the mobile phone 216 as entered by the user.This passkey may be entered by the guest in order to prove they are thecurrent guest of the particular hotel room that corresponds to thepasskey. The media system controller 250 then performs a lookupoperation matching the received passkey with the same passkey stored inthe authentication or identification information column 902 of the roomauthentication table 900. In this way, the user's registered room column904 on the matching row indicates the registered guest room currentlyassociated with the passkey. The media system controller 250 may therebyassociate guest content A 218 stored on the mobile phone 216 with theuser's registered room in guest content list table 810 by storing “Guestroom A” in column 816 on the row corresponding to “Guest content A”, forexample. Other types of authentication and identification informationmay also be mapped to a particular room in a similar way such as theguest's full name, room number, login credentials, etc.

According to the exemplary guest content list table 810 illustrated inFIG. 8, the media system controller 250 may perform any of its availablemedia functions utilizing content selected from “Guest content A” onlyon the in-room media devices located within the one or more associatedrooms, i.e., “Guest room A” and “Guest room C” in this example.

Referring again to FIG. 8, in order to determine which in-room mediadevices are located in the one or more associated rooms, the mediasystem controller 250 may refer to in-room media device table 820. Forexample, the media system controller 250 may search the first column 822to find the row(s) matching the one or more associated rooms, and thenrefer to the corresponding in-room media devices listed in column 824.Each in-room media device may have an unique address (e.g., MAC address,IP address, or other network address) and these addresses may beincluded in column 824 or stored in another table (not shown). Forexample, each of the TVs 212, 222, 232 may have a unique IP address, andeach of the STBs listed in column 824 (not illustrated in FIG. 3) mayhave a unique IP address. The media system controller 250 then sendsappropriate commands, metadata, and other information to only thein-room media devices of the associated room(s). In this way, the mediasystem controller 250 performs the various media functions utilizingcontent selected from the guest content list only on the in-room mediadevices included in column 824 located within the one or more associatedrooms as matched in column 822.

After the guest of hotel room A 210 checks out of the room (or changesrooms, time expires, etc), the media system controller 250 may deletethe row(s) having “Guest room A” stored in the user's registered roomcolumn 904 of the room authentication table 900, and may delete therow(s) having “Guest room A” stored in the user's room column 816 of theguest content list table 810. In this way, guest content A 218 is nolonger associated with any rooms of the hotel, and the guest is unableto authenticate the mobile phone 216 to integrate guest content with thehotel media system 300 because the original passkey for room A 210 is nolonger valid.

FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 together illustrate an exemplary operational flowchartof operations performed by the hotel media system 100 of FIG. 1. Thesteps of the flowchart are not restricted to the exact order shown, and,in other configurations, shown steps may be omitted or otherintermediate steps added. In this configuration, the hotel media system100 performs the following operations:

Step 600: The process starts when the hotel media system 100 receives arequest or attempt to establish a connection to a guest device 140, 144,150. A connection request could come from a guest staying in aparticular hotel room who wishes to play content available on a device140, 144 the guest brought to the hotel premises or that is located at aremote storage location 150. In one configuration, the connection withthe hotel media system 100 may be provided at the STB 106 in the guest'sroom 102. In this configuration, the guest would either physically plugin an portable device such as a mobile phone 140 to the STB 106 using anavailable port such as USB (not shown). Alternately, the hotel mediasystem 100 may provide Wi-Fi capabilities at AP 108 and the guest willconnect to STB 106 either directly or via an available access point 108in the hotel. In another configuration, the guest's device may not bephysically in the hotel room, and instead a virtual connection 123 to anoffsite storage location 150 may be requested with the media systemcontroller 112, which itself may be physically located somewhere else inthe hotel such as a server room or at a remote location. As shown inFIG. 5, the user may request the virtual connection 123 by configuringthe media system controller 112 using the STB 106 UI 500 provided on thetelevision screen 104 in the guest's room 102. When the user selectsthis functionality they can enter an online location of their files suchas public URL or IP address 504. They can also select and configure thetype of storage location 502 such as HTTP, FTP, Windows shares, NTFSshares, proprietary online storage services etc.

Authentication information such as a user name 506 and password 508 canbe entered as well if required.

Step 602: If the guest device is a remote storage location 150, controlproceeds to step 604; otherwise, control proceeds to step 606.

Step 604: Because the guest device 150 is remotely located and accessedusing an external network 130, it may be desired to upgrade thebandwidth capacity of the virtual connection 123 with the externalnetwork 130 in order to support transfer throughput speeds sufficient todownload the guest content 152 from the remote location 150. In someconfigurations, the bandwidth may be upgraded by a bandwidth controller122 to support real-time playback, and, in other configurations, thebandwidth may be upgraded to allow the guest content 152 to bedownloaded and cached within a guest content cache 126 in the hotelmedia system 100. For example, if the remote location 150 is accessiblevia the Internet 130, the guest may be presented with an option 514 topay an additional fee in order to upgrade the bandwidth available forthe virtual connection 123 in order to download the guest content 152from the remote storage location 150.

Step 606: A connection with the guest device is established by the hotelmedia system 100. As previously mentioned, the connection may be madethrough a wired access port 110 such as USB, FireWire, Ethernet, etc; awireless coupling 108 such as via Bluetooth, WLAN, and Wi-Fi, etc; or avirtual coupling 123 such as connecting to an offsite storage location150 via an external network that is not a part of the hotel media systemsuch as the Internet 130. In general, any type of connection may beestablished between the hotel media system 100 and the guest device 140,144, 150. Passwords and configuration may also be utilized to establishthe connection as required. Although FIG. 1 shows the connection beingestablished between the guest device 140, 144, 150 and the media systemcontroller 112, in another configuration, the connection may beestablished directly between a local guest device 140, 144 and anin-room STB 106. In another configuration, the STB 106 may includefunctionality to access the remote storage location 150 and the mediasystem controller 112 simply passes packets from the STB 106 directly tothe Internet 130. Therefore, the connection with the guest device may beestablished utilizing any available connection port 108, 110, 123 in thehotel media system 100 whether it is wired, wireless, or virtual, andmay be made by any component such as the STB 106, the media systemcontroller 112 via a network or other connection 108, 110, thetelevision 104 having integrated set-top box functions, etc.

Step 608: At this step, the hotel media system 100 detects the type ofguest device 140, 144, 150 and confirms it can access the guest device140, 144, 150 utilizing the configuration parameters that may have beenpreviously entered by a user (e.g., in FIG. 5). Examples of detectingdevice types include detecting whether the guest device 140, 144, 150 isa USB mass storage drives, a music player, a laptop, a mobile phone, anFTP directory, etc. Examples of confirming the accessibility includesdetecting if the guest device 140, 144, 150 is acting as a master orslave, whether it needs and accepts authentication, the version of thedevice's operating system, etc. For example, the hotel media system 100may be pre-configured by an administrator to automatically establishconnections with popular types of guest devices 140, 144, 150 that arelikely to be brought to the hotel by guests.

Step 610: If the guest device 140, 144, 150 is supported and can beaccessed by the hotel media system 100, control proceeds to step 614;otherwise, control proceeds to step 612.

Step 612: Because the guest device 140, 144, 150 cannot be accessed, anappropriate error message is provided. For example, if the type isunknown and no default access techniques succeed, this would mean theguest device 140, 144, 150 is not supported and cannot be accessed. Inanother case, if the device type is supported but refused toauthenticate the hotel media system 100 with the user supplied username506/password 508, this would also mean the guest device 140, 144, 150cannot be accessed. In these types of situations, the hotel media system100 is unable to integrate content from the guest device 140, 144, 150and displays an appropriate error message to the user such as on thetelevision screen 104. Helpful information to correct the error may alsobe provided according to why the problem occurred. For example, that theusername 506/password 508 were not accepted, the location 504 timed out,etc.

Step 614: The hotel media system 100 now accesses the guest device 140,144, 150 and catalogues guest content 142, 146, 152 it can detect on theguest device 140, 144, 150 to form a guest content list 116 includingthe guest content available on the guest device 140, 144, 150. This mayinvolve recursing through the directory structure on the guest device140, 144, 150 to detect and catalogue all supported and compatible mediacontent files. Alternately, some guest devices such as media playerslike an iPod® or proprietary online storage systems may already providean index of all content available on the device, and the hotel mediasystem 100 may simply read this index to catalogue the guest content142, 146, 152.

Step 616: The guest content 142, 146, 152 found on the guest device 140,144, 150 during step 614 is checked for compatibility with the hotelmedia system 100. For example, the hotel media system may include acompatibility module 124 for determining which media assets of the guestcontent 142, 146, 152 are compatible (and therefore usable/viewable)either before, during or after the cataloguing in step 614. The playbackcompatibility could be a combination of pre-determined lists/rules andon-the-fly playback testing. It's worthwhile noting that a particularmedia asset may not be compatible with a particular hotel media system100 due to servers and devices within the hotel media system 100 otherthan a STB 106. For example, incompatibilities with internal devicessuch as a video server, network infrastructure, or even room-specificdevices like the TV model. Playback compatibility may be importantbecause incompatible guest content could prevent a guest from using orconfiguring a media asset to obtain expected results. In thesesituations, an error may be caused or unexpected behavior encountered.For example setting a wakeup alarm to an unsupported audio/video typemay prevent the wakeup alarm from operating as expected and may cause aguest to miss an important business meeting. Likewise, setting ascreensaver to an unsupported graphic format may prevent the screensaverfrom operating as expected and may cause burn-in or other damage to thetelevision 104. If incompatible guest content is found, control proceedsto step 618; otherwise, control proceeds to step 624.

Step 618: If the compatibility module 124 can fix the incompatibility,control proceeds to step 622; otherwise, control proceeds to step 620.

Step 620: If there is no conversion solution available, the media assetis considered incompatible and not catalogued for use by the hotel mediasystem 100. Therefore, incompatible guest content is skipped and notincluded on the guest content list to thereby prevent the problemsdescribed in step 616.

Step 622: In many cases incompatibilities may be overcome by converting,transcoding, or simply playing the media asset in a different mannerthan its native format. For example playing a video at 720p rather than1080p, or compressing a large JPEG photo so it will fit on the screen.Audio/video files may be converted to a format supported by playbackmodes of the in-room STB 106. Other format conversions may be appliedaccording to the content playback requirements of the hotel media system100.

Step 624: In order to support on-demand playback and not require theconnection with the guest device to be maintained, the guest content142, 146, 152 may be cached within a guest content cache 126 in thehotel media system 100. If implemented, this step may also be userconfigurable to allow the user control over caching of their privatecontent. In one configuration, the hotel media system 100 wouldautomatically cache all the available guest content 142, 146, 152.However, since this may involve huge amounts of data, in anotherconfiguration, the guest may manually choose particular media assets ofthe guest content 142, 146, 152 to cache. For example, if they areplanning to use the hotel media system 100 to watch a particular moviethat is stored on their mobile phone 140, they may only choose to cachethat particular movie in the guest content cache 126. Then, at a latertime when they are ready to watch the movie, they do not need to connectthe mobile phone 140 because the movie is already cached by the hotelmedia system 100 and is ready for playback, bookmarking, sharing, etc.In this way, a guest may “load up” the hotel media system 100 withpersonal content for use during the guest's stay in the hotel.Additional fees may apply for the use of caching. Also, in otherconfigurations, caching may be automatically performed to temporarilystore media assets that were converted in step 622 to a format beingcompatible with the media system 100.

Step 626: Sharing options for the guest content 142, 146, 152 may beconfigured by the guest, by hotel staff, or automatically by the hotelmedia system 100. Different levels of sharing and authentication may beemployed according to different configurations. In one configuration, bydefault, the hotel media system 100 only associates guest content 142,146, 152 with the particular room 102 for which the guest device 140,144, 150 is associated. This ensures that guest privacy is maintainedbecause a guest's personal movies and other content will only beplayable by equipment in the guest's own room. In another configuration,the hotel media system 100 may also allow the guest to mark all or anymedia asset of the guest content 142, 146, 150 stored on their device140, 144, 150 as accessible in one or more rooms in the hotel. Forexample, a family that has children staying in one room and parentsstaying in another may wish for family home movies stored on thefather's mobile phone 140 to be accessible on the hotel media system 100in both rooms. A sharing options UI 500 of the hotel media system 100may allow content to be associated with other rooms with guestconfigurable sharing options 510 such as private (default), public, oronly shared with specific room(s). Genres and other sharing settings mayalso be included to help guests browse the available content from theother guests or to automatically associate particular types of contentwith certain rooms. In another configuration, password(s) may beconfigured for all or any media asset of the guest content 142, 146, 150and the password protected content will only be associated with andavailable in other rooms if the guest in the other room knows thepassword. Although the sharing options 510 illustrated in FIG. 5 arecombined with the connection request UI 500, in other configurations,the sharing options 510 may be done in other UIs either before or afterthe content has been catalogued in step 614.

Step 628: The hotel media system 100 offers its regular UI control tothe guest to operate the hotel's media system. The difference is thatthe total content available for the guest is expanded to include theguests own content 142, 146, 152. This means, when the guest wants towatch a movie or listen to music, the available choices on the hotelmedia system 100 will include both original hotel audio/video content120 and the guest provided movie and audio content as is available onthe guest's devices 140, 146, 152. It should be noted that the word“original” in this sense does not necessarily mean new or unique to thathotel. As shown in FIG. 4, the original hotel content 120 may includepopular Hollywood movies 402. Also, if other guests had shared theircontent with this room, the original hotel content may also includeguest content from other rooms and devices. Therefore, the media system100 performs media functions according to both the guest content list116 and a first content list formed by original hotel content list 114and any other guest content that may already be shared with or availablein this hotel room 102. In other words, the first content list includesall the content that is available before the guest integrates their ownguest content with the hotel media system 100. The first content listmay also be a list of channels available on an in-room TV or other mediadevice in the hotel room. After integrating guest content 142, 146, 152,all the advanced features of the hotel media system 100 in the guest'sroom may utilize said guest content 142, 146, 152. For example, ascreensaver on the TV could utilize an image stored on the guest'slaptop 144, a room wake-up alarm could be configured to play a video oraudio file stored on the guest's mobile phone 140, a movie could beplayed from the guest's offsite storage location 150, etc. In this way,all media related functions of the hotel media system 100 are integratedwith the guest's own content 142, 146, 152 available on the guest'sdevice. Additionally, if content sharing is enabled, some or all of theguest's content may also be made available to other guests in otherrooms according to the sharing configuration as described in step 626.

Step 630: The hotel media system 100 continues to operate with access tothe guest's device 140, 144, 150 until detecting a predetermineddeletion event. In one embodiment, the predetermined deletion event mayoccur when a guest staying in a room 102 for which the guest device 140,146, 150 is associated checks out. In this way, the guest's own content142, 146, 152 will be integrated with the hotel media system 100 andavailable to the guest until the guest checks out of the hotel. In otherconfigurations, the deletion event may be deemed to have occurred if theconnection established in step 606 is broken such as would occur if thelaptop computer 144 is removed from the Ethernet port 110, was shut off,or ran out of batteries. In other examples, the predetermined deletionevent may occur when hotel staff disconnect or otherwise forbid thedevice, a predetermined time limit is reached, a predetermined amount ofdata is transferred to/from the guest device 140, 144, 150, a copyrightviolation is detected, etc. Combinations and permutations of the aboveconditions may also be utilized to define the predetermined deletionrequirement. A timer may be available on a media system UI thatindicates how much time until the predetermined deletion event occurs.Once the predetermined deletion event occurs, control proceeds step 632;otherwise, the media system 100 continues to integrate the guest content142, 146, 152 by returning to step 628.

Step 632: After the predetermined deletion event, in one configuration,the media system controller 112 removes from the guest content list 116the guest content that is no longer available, deletes the same from theguest content cache 126, and performs media functions according to onlythe first content list (e.g., content that was available before theguest integrated their own content). For example, if the predetermineddeletion event is defined as occurring when the guest checks out of thehotel, upon checkout, all the guest content 142, 146, 152 would bedeleted from the guest content list 116 and removed from the guestcontent cache 126. Other rooms or users for which the content 142, 146,152 may have been shared will also no longer be able to see or utilizethe guest content 142, 146, 152 with the hotel media system 100. Inanother configuration, if the predetermined deletion event is defined asoccurring when a guest device is disconnected from the hotel mediasystem 100, upon disconnecting the laptop 144, guest content 146 wouldbe deleted from the guest content list 116 and the cache 126; however,guest content 142, 152 available from the mobile phone 140 and offsitestorage 150 would still be available on the guest content list 116 andincluded in the cache 126. In another configuration, for frequenttravelers to a particular hotel, the predetermined deletion event may bedefined as a predetermined amount of time since their last stay in thehotel. In this way, as long as the guest continues to frequently stay ofthe hotel, the guest's content will be maintained and available withinthe hotel. Additional fees for this content storage may apply. Forprivacy reasons, sharing may be disabled while the guest is not stayingin the hotel (current guests will not be able to see or use the storedcontent); however, it may be maintained in the cache 126 and apersonalized guest content list 116 to be ready for when the guestreturns to the hotel.

Because the hotel media system 100 fully integrates the guest's owncontent 142, 146, 152 as available on one or more guest devices 140,144, 150, all the advanced functions of the media system 100 can beconfigured to use the guest provided content 142, 146, 152. This isadvantageous because the guest devices 140, 144, 150 may not supportmany of the features available on the hotel media system 100 such aswide screen playback and surround sound. Additionally, because the mediasystem 100 may also integrate content from remote online storage devices150, guests do not need to bring any portable electronic device withthem as they travel. This could be advantageous to guests that aretrying to travel light or are worried they may lose portable devicesthey bring or risk them being stolen. Content sharing options betweendifferent rooms and guests further enhance the guest experience.

In an advantageous usage example, content is integrated with ahospitality media system such as a hotel media and entertainment system.Media devices are located in a plurality of rooms, each room having oneor more in-room media devices. The media system provides entertainmentto users in the rooms by performing a media function utilizing contentselected from a first content list on the media devices. Whenintegrating their own content, a user of one of the rooms establishes aconnection between the media system and a guest device. The media systemcatalogues guest content available on the guest device to thereby form aguest content list, and associates the guest content with one or moreparticular rooms at least including the user's room. Thereafter, themedia function is performed utilizing content further selected from theguest content list only on in-room media devices located within theparticular rooms with which the guest content is associated.

An advantage of the hospitality media system and method according to anexemplary configuration is to allow users staying at a hospitalitylocation such as a hotel to use the full capabilities of the hotel'smedia and entertainment system to play guest content stored on a guestdevice while automatically ensuring that only in-room media devices inparticular room(s) that are associated with the guest content are ableto access the guest content.

A further advantage is the hospitality media system may automaticallyassociate guest content stored on a guest device for use in the room inwhich the user is currently registered. When the room is no longerregistered to the user, the media system may automatically un-associatedthe guest content from the room. The process may then repeat with eachfuture guest staying in the room. This is highly beneficial forhospitality locations such as hotels that may have thousands of roomsincluding guest rooms, meeting rooms, and conference rooms, andcontinuously arriving and departing guests, each of who may wish toperform media functions on in-room media devices using guest contentstored on guest devices during their stay at the hotel.

In summary, a hospitality media system includes a media systemcontroller and a plurality of media devices located in a plurality ofrooms and coupled to the media system controller. Each room has one ormore in-room media devices located therein for performing a mediafunction. A connection port allows a user of a room to establish datacommunications between the media system controller and a guest device.The media system controller is coupled to the connection port andconfigured to catalogue guest content available on the guest device tothereby form a guest content list, associate the guest content with oneor more associated rooms at least including the user's room, and performthe media function utilizing content selected from the guest contentlist only on the in-room media devices located within the one or moreassociated rooms.

In the above description, the exemplary user indication of “guest”refers to current guests in the hotel, people who are attending aconference or meeting in the hotel, staff members at the hotel, or anyother person or user who may need or want to integrate content with ahotel media system. Future guests that have reservations, potentialfuture guests that don't yet have reservations, and other users may alsobe given access to integrate their own content. For example, ademonstration of the technology may be available in the hotel lobby andall users would be able to integrate content from their own devices withthe media system 100 and play the content on a television in the lobbyto test out the system 100.

Although the invention has been described in connection with a preferredembodiment, it should be understood that various modifications,additions and alterations may be made to the invention by one skilled inthe art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention asdefined in the appended claims. For example, although the invention hasbeen described as being utilized at a hotel, the invention is equallyapplicable to any hospitality related location or service wishing toprovide users with a media system including but not limited to hotels,motels, resorts, hospitals, apartment/townhouse complexes, restaurants,retirement centers, cruise ships, busses, airlines, shopping centers,passenger trains, etc. The various separate elements, features, andmodules of the invention described above may be integrated or combinedinto single units. For example, the media system controller 112 andother related elements shown in FIG. 1 may be integrated within the STB106, which itself may be integrated within the widescreen television104. Similarly, functions of single units may be separated into multipleunits.

The modules and other units may be implemented as dedicated hardware,and may also be implemented as one or more software programs executed bya general or specific purpose processor to cause the processor tooperate pursuant to the software program to perform the above-describedfunctions. For example, the media system controller 112 of FIG. 1 may beimplemented by a computer server having one or more processors executinga computer program loaded from a storage media (not shown) to performthe above-described functions. Unless otherwise specified, featuresdescribed may be implemented in hardware or software according todifferent design requirements. Additionally, all combinations andpermutations of the above described features and configurations may beutilized in conjunction with the invention.

1. A method of integrating content with a hospitality media systemhaving a plurality of media devices in a plurality of rooms, each roomhaving one or more in-room media devices located therein for performinga media function, the method comprising: allowing a user of a room toestablish data communications between the hospitality media system and aguest device; cataloguing guest content available on the guest device tothereby form a guest content list; associating the guest content withone or more associated rooms at least including the user's room; andperforming the media function utilizing content selected from the guestcontent list only on the in-room media devices located within the one ormore associated rooms.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:detecting from which room a connection between the hospitality mediasystem and the guest device is established; and automaticallyassociating the guest content with the user's room being the detectedroom.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receivingauthentication or identification information from the guest device; andautomatically associating the guest content with the user's roomdetermined according to the authentication or identificationinformation.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: allowing theuser to configure sharing options specifying one or more shared rooms ofthe hospitality media system in which the guest content is to be madeavailable; and associating the guest content with the one or more sharedrooms according to the sharing options.
 5. The method of claim 1,further comprising deleting the guest content list after the user checksout of the user's room.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprisingcaching the guest content within the hospitality media system until theuser checks out of the user's room.
 7. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising utilizing a virtual connection through an external networkthat is not a part of the hospitality media system for performing datacommunications with the guest device.
 8. The method of claim 7, furthercomprising upgrading an available bandwidth for the guest device tocommunicate through the external network to support the virtualconnection.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: allowing theuser to establish connections between the hospitality media system and aplurality of guest devices; and cataloguing the guest content availableon each of the guest devices to thereby form the guest content list. 10.The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of rooms are guest rooms ofa hotel.
 11. A hospitality media system comprising: a media systemcontroller; a plurality of media devices located in a plurality of roomsand coupled to the media system controller, each room having one or morein-room media devices located therein for performing a media function;and a connection port for allowing a user of a room to establish datacommunications between the media system controller and a guest device;wherein the media system controller is coupled to the connection portand configured to: catalogue guest content available on the guest deviceto thereby form a guest content list; associate the guest content withone or more associated rooms at least including the user's room; andperform the media function utilizing content selected from the guestcontent list only on the in-room media devices located within the one ormore associated rooms.
 12. The hospitality media system of claim 11,further comprising: a room detector for detecting from which room aconnection between the hospitality media system and the guest device isestablished; wherein the media system controller is configured toautomatically associate the guest content with the user's room being thedetected room.
 13. The hospitality media system of claim 11, wherein themedia system controller is further configured to: receive authenticationor identification information from the guest device; and automaticallyassociate the guest content with the user's room determined according tothe authentication or identification information.
 14. The hospitalitymedia system of claim 11, further comprising: a user interface forallowing the user to configure sharing options specifying one or moreshared rooms of the hospitality media system in which the guest contentis to be made available; wherein the media system controller is furtherconfigured to associate the guest content with the one or more sharedrooms according to the sharing options.
 15. The hospitality media systemof claim 11, wherein the media system controller is further configuredto delete the guest content list after the user checks out of the user'sroom.
 16. The hospitality media system of claim 11, wherein the mediasystem controller is further configured to cache the guest contentwithin the hospitality media system until the user checks out of theuser's room.
 17. The hospitality media system of claim 11, wherein themedia system controller is coupled to an external network and is furtherconfigured to utilize a virtual connection through the external networkfor performing data communications with the guest device.
 18. Thehospitality media system of claim 17, wherein the media systemcontroller is further configured to upgrade an available bandwidth forthe guest device to communicate through the external network to supportthe virtual connection.
 19. The hospitality media system of claim 11,further comprising: multiple connection ports for allowing the user toestablish connections between the hospitality media system and aplurality of guest devices; wherein the media system controller isfurther configured to catalogue the guest content available on each ofthe guest devices to thereby form the guest content list.
 20. Ahospitality media system comprising: a plurality of media deviceslocated in a plurality of rooms, each room having one or more in-roommedia devices located therein for performing a media function; means forallowing a user of a room to establish data communications between thehospitality media system and a guest device; means for cataloguing guestcontent available on the guest device to thereby form a guest contentlist; means for associating the guest content with one or moreassociated rooms at least including the user's room; and means forperforming the media function utilizing content selected from the guestcontent list only on the in-room media devices located within the one ormore associated rooms.